Williamson Nips Sukhu For Ceres Juices 10K Series Crown

NOVEMBER 10—Organizers couldn’t have scripted a better finish to decide the men’s division winner in the 2013 Ceres Juices 10K Series finale—a one race showdown to crown the champion and an exciting finish line sprint.

With Ravi Sukhu in tow, Ruben Stoby and Guy Williamson set the pace in the 6.2 mile loop from Road Town to the Ellis Thomas Downs in Sea Cows Bay and return.

Stoby and Williamson continued their 6 minutes and 30 seconds paced run, trading the lead, before Sukhu reeled them both in on the return. After Sukhu took the lead with about a mile and a half to go, Stoby was dropped and it became a race between Williamson and Sukhu for the title.

Williamson separated himself from Sukhu over the last 200m, thought he had a safe lead and raised his hands in celebration 12 meters out as he approached the tape, only to feel Sukhu’s last charge just as he hit the line.

“I didn’t anticipate that. Ravi chased me all the way to the line,” said Williamson who finished .27 seconds ahead, covering the course in 39 minutes 10.68 seconds to Ravi’s 39:10.95. Stoby finished third in 39:35. “It was an exciting finish,” he added saying he was absolutely surprised. “Thanks for pushing me Ravi.”

Ravi said the thought he had edged Williamson. “When I caught them, I said I would give it a shot at the end, but he was a little bit too strong for me at the end,” Ravi said. “I tried to stay in the lead after I caught them, but he had the kick in the final 200m.”

Stoby’s plan was to take the race out hard on the flat course. “I’ve run with Williamson before and he beat me on the home stretch in a sprint finish and I was hoping I would be able to stretch him out a bit, but I think I expended my self a little too much in doing that,” he explained. “During the race, I was looking back and was surprised that Ravi had let a gap open up so early. Coming back, I thought we had a fairly good pace but Ravi kept coming. That was a very gutsy run for him, congrats to Ravi.”

Coming off a personal best effort in the Chicago Marathon, Katrina Crumpler—the class of the women’s field—was making her first outing after the 26.2 miler. She finished fifth overall in 43:32, to seal the women’s crown.

“It felt quite hard, I think it takes a while to recover from a Marathon,” Crumpler said. “I have been on a few low key runs since then, but, today’s time was good enough. I wanted to go quicker than 43 but, you always want to go quicker.”

Julaine Potgieter was second overall in the series followed by NiMande Oniaish.

Stefano Tasking and Tullah Kinkead were the youngest participants in the series.

The Ceres Juices 10K Series is the final tune up for the road racing season ending 8th Ogier/Deloite BVI Sunrise Half Marathon on Nov 30.